Blind Swordsman Zatoichi * Bonjour Monsieur Shalomi * The Boys of County Clare * Facing Window * The Five Obstructions * Garden State * The Goddess * Hero * It's Easier for a Camel * Maria Full of Grace * Moi, Cesar * My Grandpa * Natural City * The Notebook * Off the Map * Open Water * Perfect Strangers * Primer * Raja * Ruby & Quentin * Running on Karma * Sky Blue * Slim Susie * Steam - The Turkish Bath * The Story of the Weeping Camel * Tamala 2010 - A Punk Cat in Space * Tesseract * Torremolinos 73 * Triple Agent * Turn Left Turn Right * Twilight Samurai * Untold Scandal SIFF 2003 * SIFF 2004 * SIFF 2005 Blind Swordsman Zatoichi It was good. But it wasn't nearly as good as I expected it to be. There are some very weird, almost anachronistic moments in it - the ending in particular is very odd and seems like it should have been spliced in from some other movie that happens to be a musical. Weird. There was also certain bits of editing that seemed very crude and ineffective. I had a lot of issues with Takeshi Kitano being blonde - sure it helps you pick him out of a crowd, but no one looks at him twice for being blonde in a world where, obviously, everyone else has black hair. I think the part that bothered me the most though were the special effects. Almost all of the blood and wounds inflicted during the sword fighting scenes (and there were a lot of them) were done using CGI, and it was pretty poorly done. I found the effects to be very fake looking. Strangely I suspect the film might actually play better on the smaller screen, where such issues with the special effects would not be as noticeable. And I have to say that I really like the story of the two Geisha, and wish they had gotten a little more involved in the pursuit of justice. I was also a little disappointed at the story of the Ronin, who I expected to have a different ending. Siiiiiiigh. Ah well. But overall it was funny and entertaining and definitely had a lot of cool swordfights in it. Worth checking out for sure, but not to die for or anything. ;) Return to the Index Bonjour Monsieur Shalomi I LOVED this film. LOVED IT. It might just be my favorite film of the year. :) It's what I call a "charmer". It's sweet, it's poignant, it's upbeat, it's sad, it's hopeful, it's inspiring, it's romantic. The story is of a 16 year old boy who is nearly flunking out of school and is the glue that holds his family together. When he is not cooking fantastically delicious food to pacify and please his family, he is playing mediator between all of them. Shalomi is badgered by this family and finds himself falling for the gardener girl that is his next door neighbor, but isn't assertive enough to stand up for what is fair or try for what he wants. Then one of his teachers discovers something remarkable about Shalomi that no one has noticed and slowly but surely everything in his world starts to change. Oh man, did I love this film. It's going to be playing at the Varsity in either late June or July I think (I can't find the schedule at the moment) and I am ABSOLUTELY going to go see it again. I won't say any more, for fear that it will ruin the pleasure of seeing this film for the first time, but I can say right now that it was absolutely my favorite film of the Film Festival so far. So HAPPY! :) Return to the Index Boys of County Clare This movie was made for annathepiper cause pretty much while there is a storyline, the movie is predominantly about traditional celtic music. I think she would really have flipped over this film. It tells the tale of two estranged brothers who meet once again, under less than desireable circumstances, at a traditional Irish music competition. It's not an amazing film, but it is highly enjoyable and entertaining, well acted, a fun story, and full of really great music and a great surprising twist at the end that I never saw coming. I think the only thing that bothered me was hearing fabulous violin music and watching as the actors were barely even playing the violins in their hands. The bowing wasn't bad, but there was literally no attempt at fingering most of the time, which I found very disconcerting. And I don't even play violin, so I imagine anyone that does would find it most annoying. But just, uh, look somewhere else during those moment and I think you'll enjoy the film. ;) Return to the Index Facing Window If I thought Steam was good, this movie blew me away. It is definitely one of the best films of the festival, if not the best. It tells the story of a woman who finds herself captivated by a man she sees through her window. She is struggling with a job that she hates and a marriage that is not so ideal, and to make matters even more complicated, an old man comes into her life through a moment of charity, his memory and behavior erratic. Slowly the story unfolds, piece by piece, petal by petal, like a fantastically complex flower coming into bloom. It's funny, because the description of the film left me utterly disinterested, but everyone I had spoken with who had seen the press screening kept telling me how fabulous it was. So I choose to see it, and I am so grateful that I did. The characters are all fascinating and compelling, and we see the lives, choices, and issues that people have faced and now face. Like Steam it deals a great deal with life choices, figuring out what makes you happy and pursuing it. It also, interestingly enough, has the recurring gay theme! ;) Afterward I asked the director what inspired him to create this story, since I noticed he wrote it as well as directed it. I got the longest answer I have ever gotten for such a question, and it was a wonderful answer. Part of it was inspired by a true event in his life - how one day he was crossing a bridge with a friend, arguing, and they came across an old man offering people money, completely lost and with no idea of where he was or where he was going. But the main impetuous of the film was how places see everything. He talked about how when he was in his home he would wonder, "What have these walls seen?" Couples kissing? Children playing? Fights? Arguements? Tragedies? Miracles? As such places play an important role in this film, being re-visited again and again and we see, through flashbacks, different things that these walls have seen. It's such a fantastically rich and layered film. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Simply, and complexly, beautiful. Return to the Index The Five Obstructions This was pretty cool and would have been a lot cooler if something hadn't been fucked up with the screening. I don't know what happened, but the film must have gotten slightly twisted or something ... not entirely flat ... because no matter what they did they couldn't get the whole thing in focus. Either one side of the film was in focus and the opposite wasn't or the center was but the edges weren't. Drove me nuts and there were sections of the film where it was so bad we could barely recognize the people let alone read the subtitles. That really spoiled a lot of this viewing for me. The premise here is that Lars Von Trier sets up these "obstructions" for his director friend Jorgen Leth. The deal is this - remake shorts based on his surreal film Perfect Human, but with various caveats in place. They went through five these, hence the title "Five Obstructions". Between each of these short films they showed the discussions about them (which were often very funny) and some of the process and work involved in making them. Very straightforward documentary at that point. The first one was hands down my favorite. The "obstructions" were (and alas these are only three out of the five - can't remember the other two) that it had to be filmed in Cuba (cause Leth had never been there), the edits couldn't be any more than 12 frames, and the questions asked in Perfect Human had to be answered by the film. What seemed at first like an impossible obstacle, essentially never being able to have more than 12 frames of film before the next edit, ended up being the absolute genius of this short. The images flickered and shifted and repeated and danced as continuous motion was shot and reshot and then edited together in 12 frame bits. The result was like watching a master card player shuffle cards, the figure motions chopped and yet fluid, fascinating to look at, creating a rhythmn and texture and offering up numerous fascinating editing and image possibilities that probably would never have occured to someone had the problem not been forced upon them in the first place. Alas I didn't really care much for the other obstructions. The second required Leth to film it in a "horrible place", to not show the people or the grim-ness, and he had to play the starring role. He did not accomplish this to Von Trier's satisfaction, so as punishment he had to either film it totally freely, with no caveats or instructions, or he had to go back and refilm #2 correctly. He chose the former. It was visually interesting, but didn't really grab me. The fourth was to do it again as a cartoon. This was visually quite cool, as he took existing footage and had it animated through a computer with some interesting and wicked cool techniques I've never seen used before in animation. The final one was Leth reading a letter, written by Van Trier, to Von Trier, from "Leth's" perspective, and used much of the footage documentary footage already shown throughout the film. I was rather curious what made all this happen in the first place. Part of me suspects that it had to do with Von Trier's concern for his friend's mental health, a way to shake him out of his cocoon possibly. There were some references here and there to Leth's "depression in Haiti" and much discussion about how these assignments were meant to impact on and affect Leth (and how Von Trier was frustrated as Leth kept coming back time and time again, the assignment completed, but the man unaffected by the experience), and how they were supposed to be like therapy. In the end Von Trier's letter to himself from "Leth" basically said, "You tried to manipulate me and open me up, but in the end through being controlling and attacking me, it was you who was opened and made vulnerable." Ah ... okay, whatever. Over all it was interesting, probably would have been a lot more enjoyable if some of the documentary stuff had been shorter and more relevant and would have been a LOT more enjoyable if I didn't have to spend so much of the viewing not being able to see the film clearly. But that first little short? Damn. That was really REALLY kick ass. I could easily watch it again and again and again. Return to the Index Garden State I had the pleasure of bumping into petit_chou before this film during which she informed me that apparently I have a doppleganger, which we agreed is evil, by default. Apparently there is a woman walking around that looks exactly like me and who many people identified as being actively evil and mean. Huh! We determined that in such cases, the evil twin is the doppleganger and the good twin is the gangerdopple. But I didn't really want to be too good, so I told her that I'm hoping that we're triplets, and that I'm actually the cuspidal! The middle one. ;) Anywho ... the movie! This was good. Very good. For what it is. It's one of those quirky stories about being young and figuring out who you are and what you want and looking at the world around you. However, it's done very well and is refreshing compared to most of the trash and drivel that comes out regarding that topic. Filmed in New Jersey, I was very curious to see if I recognized anything, but there was only one building that I "thought" I might have seen myself, and the only town they listed in the credits that I was personally familiar with was Morristown. Hrmmm. The funny thing about this movie is while it was interesting and enjoyable while I was watching it, I do not feel particularly impressed or charmed with it now. Of course that might be due to the fact that the following movie kinda blew it away ... Return to the Index The Goddess I don't think it's a good sign when watching a film that is only 77 minutes long you keep thinking to yourself, "Wow, this is really a long film, isn't it over yet??" The only thing that really makes this film is the brilliant performance by Ruan Ling-Yu. What's even more amazing is that not only was this woman a fantastic actress, but by the age of 24 she had made 29 movies! Tragically she committed suicide at that incredibly young age, her fame so great that her funeral in Shanghai was bigger that Rudolph Valentino's in Hollywood. The story is of a prostitute, "goddess" being a term used to describe such women, who is desperately trying to do the right thing even though society and circumstances have forced her to live the wrong life. She walks the streets at night in order to support her son, and this task is made all the harder when a gangster insinuates himself into the picture, taking the money that she makes. Still she manages to save enough to send her son to school, but the other parents eventually protest when they learn of her "work", the gangster finally finds where she hides her money, and a rash act of desperation sets into motion a chain of events that will forever change her life and that of her son. The film is tragically rather slow and boring for long chunks, having a great deal of dialog for a silent film. But her acting is quite astonishing and she was an incredibly beautiful woman. There was a huge delay in the middle of the film, as something went wrong with the projection, which certainly didn't help any. The composer for the soundtrack flew out from NY to play live during the film - that was quite neat and the music he wrote was both appropriate for the period and style of the film, and at times really quite beautiful. It was an interesting experience, though part of me suspects I would have enjoyed seeing Girl on the Bridge on the big screen more than what I ended up seeing. Ahhh, decisions, decisions. So hard to make, so much harder to get right. Return to the Index Hero I've already seen this movie three times, so I already knew it was going to be fantastic. And it was. But I'm telling you here and now, this MUST MUST MUST be seen on a big screen! And if possible you want to see it at the Cinerama. And if you can't see it there, you want to see it on the biggest and best screen available to you, with the richest and fullest sound as well. Even after three viewings I cried at the tender and tragic moments. I covered my mouth in awe at the beautiful moments. The cinematography is simply exquisite. The story might be simple, but it is unparalleled for its artistry, martial arts, costumes, and most of all the fantastic and beautiful use of color as metaphor. Simply breathtaking. The US version is surprisingly longer than the original import. However the only thing that they added is a slower explanation at the beginning and a few scenes that set up the storyline a bit more clearly. In the import version there is a huge chunk of text that shows up at the beginning, unsubtitled, which I can only assume is the introduction. The US version spreads this out and seems to have a few short bits of film as Jet Li first arrives at the palace, the clarify his position, why he's there, and what he has done. I didn't recall that from my viewings of it. Other than that, I don't think they changed a thing. So good! Return to the Index It's Easier for a Camel It would have been easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for this film to be good. I've learned one thing from this film. Rich people who whine about all the problems they have, which are all the problems we poor people have only without the nice money part, can just shut the fuck up and stop whining. This film was boring, annoying, and I mostly just wanted to hit the lead character who was more often than not a whiny, pathetic, selfish, immature, nobody who seemed to think she was somebody. A huge waste of time. Return to the Index Maria Full of Grace This was a movie I had no intention of seeing, because the storyline sounded very grim and unpleasant. Yet every single person who had seen it did nothing but rave about it. So I saw it. And we were both right. It's not nearly as grim or unpleasant as it could have been, but it's certainly not a happy feel-good kind of movie. Essentially Maria is a downtrodden girl trying to make a living in Columbia. She gets no support from her family, is in a dead-end relationship with her boyfriend, her job working in a flower factory is miserable, and she finally quits, looking for a better life. She is given the chance to act as a mule - that is, to swallow carefully wrapped pellets of heroine and smuggle them into NJ. The payoff is huge, but so is the risk. If even one pellet were to break open inside of her, she would die. Ugh. Watching her practice the process of swallowing by trying to swallow large red grapes was grim. Watching her actually swallow the pellets was even more so. Those things are large. And she had to swallow 62 of them. There's one scene where she's managed to down 26 and is looking pretty ill. The dealer has her lie down on a bed and then pushes at her belly, rearranging the drugs inside of her so she can fit more. All I could think of at that point was Cool Hand Luke and the eggs. And so she goes, but things don't go smoothly for her, and they go worse for one of her "friends", and Maria has to make some hard choices in a foreign country where she knows no one. It's brilliantly acted and it's a very well made film. While hard things happen, over-all it becomes a film about the freedom of choice and the freedom to make of your life what you want of it. It's definitely the best drama I've seen so far and the most compelling film so far, but it wasn't my favorite just because of the subject matter. Return to the Index Moi, Cesar This was fabulous. :) I tells the story of a young boy, Cesar Petite (poor kid - what a name!) and his adventures at 10 and a half. It's told frankly, honestly, and most amusingly. We have not only the dialog of the characters, but Cesar's personal thoughts narrating throughout the film. During the course of the film Cesar has many different adventures, the main one culiminating in a trip to England with his friends Morgan and Sarah in the attempt to find Morgan's father. It is pepper with light cursing, dysfunctional families, difficult teachers, schoolyard shenannigans, honest mistakes, and clever deceptions. I was also surprised at how serious and even a bit scary it got at times. It's rather like the youthful version of Jim et Jules in many ways, with the two boys bonding with the new girl in town, whom they both love and are trying to win over. Some of the cinematography was really brilliant and clever and the children who play the leads were quite amazing. An excellent, excellent film. :) Return to the Index My Grandpa This film was also totally charming and endearing and great! It's about a young 14 year old Japanese girl who meets her grandfather for the first time. He moves into her parents house, after being released from 13 years in prison for killing a yakuza. This is another "charmer". I find films about strong good people who manage to succeed against injustice and lousy odds, and whose goodness affects and infects the people around them, to just be the most enjoyable films. The only flaw in the film was what felt to me to be a somewhat trite and predictable way of "ending" the film and giving it closure. It's certainly the easiest and most tidy way to draw the whole thing to a close, but I would have liked it if they had thought of a different and more interesting way of doing so. But this film was also a sheer delight. Return to the Index Natural City This was interesting and overall good. It's got a bit of the Blade Runner thing going for it, what with Cyborgs trying to survive past their deadline. Beyond that, and the gritty nasty dirty rainy city look however, there isn't a whole lot of comparison. The story tells the tale of two cops, one who has fallen for a Cyborg that is expiring soon, and the other who is loyal to his job. I'd say that was another point of similarity, but once you see the story of R and his Cyborg love, you'll see what there is no comparison to Dekker and whats-er-face. I do have a problem with the "hero" of the film is not someone I can respect, let alone like, in a movie. But he does manage to redeem himself and there are other characters that pepper throughout the film that I did like very much, so that helped. It definitely had some plot twists that I wasn't expecting, so that's always nice too. Definitely more dreary than Blade Runner, which was a lot more shiny and pretty looking, with all the neon and billboards and such, than this film was. Gray is the dominate color. Return to the Index The Notebook As an opening film for the festival I think it was a rather mundane and banal choice really. It does certain things well, and it does them very well, but in the end it is a very predictable, even paced film that doesn't offer up any surprises. They kept talking about how it was a huge tear-jerker, how even manly men would cry, but I felt so distanced from the characters and the events that I never shed a tear. And I'm the girl who often cries while watching sad anime. For pete's sake, Cardcaptor Sakura can make me cry! I cry at the drop of a hat! But apparently The Notebook got under a lot of people's skin. One woman I talked to yesterday told me how the husband of a couple sitting close to her was sniffling and the wife leaned over and asked, "Are you crying?" and he just exploded into tears! Yow. Personally, I don't get it. The story is of an elderly man reading to an eldery woman, the book in question a romantic tale of two star-crossed lovers if you will. One is a well-to do highly educated girl and the other is a hard-working, poor as dirt boy. And the tale takes it's predictable walk down flirting, courtship, meddling parents, seperation, new goals, old memories, reunion, and difficult decisions. The "story" being read was my favorite part. The characters are pretty to look at, very well written and developed, with delightful little quirks that make them not the standard for romance. I liked that best of all. The "current time" part of the film just couldn't hold my interest. Again, it suffered from being predictable and often just not very convincing or interesting. Still, if you want to see a really well done romance on the big screen, I can highly recommend The Notebook on that count. I spent a good portion of the film smiling, laughing, and feeling really good about the love the two leads had for one another and the refreshing honesty and reality of their behavior and nature. Return to the Index Off the Map This is a quirky little film, one of those slice of life deals, only the subject matter is a peculiar family that lives out in the middle of the desert in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. They have no phone, no telephone, no plumbing. They live on pretty much no money and I have to say it looks quite a bit nicer and more charming than I suspect such living conditions would actually be. The father was dealing, or rather not dealing, with a debilitating depression, the mother likes to garden in the nude, and the daughter wishes for nothing more than to be out of there and in the real world. An IRS auditor shows up, as they haven't filed their taxes in seven years, and everything changes with his arrival. It's a very leisurely paced film that is surprisingly able to pull it off, mostly because the film is rather like the landscapes about it. It juts off at odd angles, is rich with color and texture, and meanders this way and that like a random stream or a thorny bush. It's just interesting to watch because it's about peculiar and interesting people. The IRS auditor goes through a true transformation of spirit, finding that a great artist lives within him. The young actress playing the daughter is quite amazing - very beautiful and striking, very young, and a most impressive actress for her age. Pity it's such a small film, because she really deserves some sort of recognition for her performance. It's quite remarkable. There were only a few bits that I really didn't like (a never really explained reversal on the depression, an inexplicable act of violence, and a very random and inappropriate death) and by the end I had found that I was ready for it to have been over about 10 minutes before. But other than that an intriguing little film. Nothing astonishing or breathtaking or mindblowing, but an interesting and thoughtful sort of diversion that had moments of great poetry and beauty in it. Sam Elliot, you know the guy that does all those commercial voice over's for "Beef, it's what's for dinner" was in attendance, as he played the role of the father. Damn that man has a deeply southern way about him. His voice is really that amazingly rich and deep, he speaks slowly and at length, and there is a lovely drawl there pretty much all the time. Return to the Index Open Water I had marked this film as a maybe, but then decided that it was probably going to be too scary or creepy or something for me to handle and crossed it off my list ... only to spontaneously decide to see it after all. Yow. This is one seriously intense, upsetting, torturous, funny, tragic film. Based on a true story it tells the tale of a busy couple who finally get to take a weekend vacation. On one day they head out with a small cruise ship to go scuba diving in the middle of the ocean. Only the people organizing the trip miscount the number of people that have returned after diving, pull up stakes, and leave without the married couple. They return to the surface to find their ship gone. At first they are annoyed, but not terribly concerned, feeling confident that the ship will realize the mistake shortly and come back from them. They realize quickly, however, that the current is quickly moving them away from the drop point, and as they drift further and further, and minutes start turning into hours, they slowly but surely begin to panic. Now I have to say first that this is a really good film. I don't know if I can actually recommend it to anyone, as it upset and freaked me out during the viewing, but regardless of that it is a good film. In the "true" story, the cruise ship doesn't realize it's terrible mistake until 24 hours after the fact. The rest of the film focuses on this couple, how they deal with the situation, the experience of their fears mounting (especially as some sharks start trolling around the area), how they pass the time, one minute blaming each other and the next proclaiming their love for one another. One of the things that makes this film so nerve-wracking is that it was filmed digitally, so it has almost that "home movie" look to it, which makes it feel more real in some ways. Another aspect of it is that there were some moments that could have been cheesy, but weren't. It was very realistic, and the actors brilliantly portrayed the mounting fear and eventual terror that they must go through. The sharks are particularly terrifying, splashing suddenly into sight before disappearing again. Jaws has nothing on Open Water, though they do share the same trick of showing less, keeping the viewers almost always at the surface of the water along with the protagonists. I jumped in my seat many many times and found myself constantly covering my mouth. The tension became so great that I actually began to hope/pray that the movie would end soon - because I couldn't deal with not knowing what was going to happen. Everything looks so dreadfully dire, so horrible, and yet you don't know ... will they fight off the sharks? Will they get rescued in time? You just don't know, and that actually had me closing my eyes a couple of times. *shudder* Scary, scary, intense, intense. At least for me, and I am a documented wimp about such things. One of my Scarecrow co-workers saw it and found it more humorous than scary or upseting, so your mileage may vary. He also knew how it ended though, which I think makes a HUGE difference in how you watch the film. If you know how it ends, then there is no tension ... and it's the tension that makes this such an intense film. Return to the Index Perfect Strangers Okay, this was bad. It wasn't so bad that I left the theater, but that's only because it was so strange I felt compelled to stay just to see how it was all going to pan out. It was intensely weird, rather distrubing and just ... just .... WEIRD! A woman is essentially kidnapped by a guy who for all intents and purposes seems to be a crazy deluded stalker type. He takes her to an island in the middle of nowhere, scares the crap out of her by telling her he loves her and that they're meant to be together, hits her when she tries (out of fear) to play him, and traps her there overnight. The next day he surprises her as she's trying to escape and she stabs him. And thus begins a strange sort of affection as she tries to take care of him after her escape attempt fails. What gets weird though is that as he gets worse and worse she finally manages to convince him to let her pilot them to civilization. But he dies on the way and the ship sinks and what do you know? The next day she finds herself washed up on the same shoreline with his dead body. So what happens? She snaps. Completely. She takes his body up and stuffs him in the freezer and then starts hallucinating that he's still alive, that they make love, that they have conversations, even though every morning she looks in on him in the freezer. And you know what? It get's even weirder than that! Weird, weird, weird, and not very good and WEIRD! It worries me a bit as this is the second "dud" of the festival so far. I think this year is definitely not as good as last year. WEIRD! Return to the Index Primer This film was really cool, as it's a movie about time travel that actually is an intelligent exploration of the ideas of time travel. It's very VERY geeky and the performances are very natural and interesting - a very convincing portrayal of some garage-geeks trying to create one thing, and accidentally creating something completely unexpected. The happy accident. :) It's the first film of writer/director/actor Shane Carruth and was made for, get this, $7,000! Amazing! It's not as brilliant a first film as say El Mariachi was, but it's still pretty neat. I think the only thing that bothered me is that it's a bit too talky at one point - I found myself getting confused about what was actually going on because they just keep talking talking talking all the time. But that's also what makes the film interesting, because it gets harder and harder to keep track of what is going on when, which parallels the complexities that the main characters start running into the more they continue to mess with time. It reminded me a lot of David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded Himself, at least in the way that it talks about time travel. I was actually quite surprised when the director told me that he had not read that book and really the time travel part was more a way for him to talk about relationships, trust, and happy accidents than the original point of the film. Interesting. :) It's supposedly getting distributed, so keep your eyes for it if you want to see something kinda different and interesting. I'd be curious to see what a "scientist" viewer might think of it, as I know very little about time travel theory. Carruth said that he did a lot of research and had others look over the "science" of it, but it would be interesting to chat with someone more savvy about such things than I and get their impressions on how well he "did" the whole time travel thing. Over all I thought it was a bit too talky, but pretty neat. Return to the Index Raja Weird. And pointless. And disappointing. And .... eh! It's a movie that really just doesn't go anywhere about a bored Frenchman who tries to seduce one of his gardening girls. But I just didn't buy it. For one, she was pretty ugly I thought ... the other gardening girls were all much prettier. Two, he goes on about how she's all inspiring and energizing, but she seemed the most sullen and annoying of the bunch. I dunno, maybe it's a French thing? Maybe sullen and annoying equals inspiring and full of life? Three, no chemistry between them. Zip. Nada. Nothing. And four? It just goes on and on and on rather endlessly, with tiresome games being played and no real logic or sense about what is going on. Booooooooring. Return to the Index Ruby & Quentin The actual French title for this film is "Shut up!", because Depardieu plays a complete and utter idiot that simply will not stop talking pretty much throughout the film. Jean Reno plays the dry, reserved, intelligent half of this "buddy" film, and all I have to say is, I don't think I have laughed this much or been this entertained by a film in a long long time. It was incredibly funny. The dialog, the set-ups, the pratfalls, the circumstances, the humor ... it was very well written and performed perfectly! A real delight. The director was in attendance and he was brilliantly funny as well, which was of no surprise considering that he wrote the script as well! He had some fabulous stories about Depardieu, what it was like working with him, and what he did to Jean Reno. He was also charming and witty and delightful himself. I laughed and laughed and laughed and I can't give a film a much better review than that. What I love is that there are few slapstick comedies that really work any more. They're usually too far over the top, or too gross, or rely too much on bad jokes and bathroom humor. This was wonderful tongue and cheek, with lots of fun, entertaining twists, and just good natured wicked fun. There aren't any surprise, but to be honest, you just won't mind because it's a good, rousing, laugh-out-loud kinda flick. Make sure you catch it. It was a fabulous film to end the night on. I feel happy and completely content. :) Return to the Index Running on Karma Like many films in this festival, this one starts off amazingly good and then loses it pretty much half way through. It definitely wins for best special effect. Andy Lau is not a big actor (something I did not know before seeing this film) but in this movie he plays a character known as "Big" - a huge muscled ex-monk who competes in bodybuilding contests and works in strip clubs. What I didn't realize until the end (though there were moments were I thought, huh ... something isn't quite right) is that throughout the movie, he's wearing a body suit with all those muscles. But it's unbelieveably convincing. He moves like a heavily muscled man, and the muscles move like, well muscles! It was really wild. And before you say, "Oh Mimi, puh-leeeze!" you have to realize that he spends a fair amount of time in this movie BUCK NAKED! I don't generally like muscles, but yow, that was some interesting eye candy. ;) To find out in the end that it was a body suit was extremely impressive to me. The film makers started the film off great - it's very comedic, high action, bizarre, and fascinating. There is of course our hero, Big, who has the ability to see karma - that is he can see the causes surrounding death - the karmic past that has fated a certain outcome for a person. There is a contortionist Indian murderer, and a sexy female cop in the middle. But the opening plot line is quickly resolved and the rest of the film becomes quite grim and dour, losing all of its humor, edge, entertainment, and action. It just becomes weird and confusing and disappointing and sad. Bah! I hate it when filmmakers do that. It's like someone suddenly said, "Hey, this movie needs depth. Hold on a minute, small change in the script folks ... everything now sucks!" It should have stayed fluffy, light, and silly. That was its best feature. Return to the Index Sky Blue This was a Korean "anime" film, but it suffered right off the bat from being subtitled! Augh! Quel disastre! Huge mistake. Afterward I asked why, and apparently they specifically made an "American" version that they think is more "universal" and will be able to reach more people and more audiences. But alas, like most dubbed films, the voices were pretty crappy and it really messed with my ability to enjoy it. It's also weird because they mix very fancy 3-D animation with 2-D animation, and in my opinion they mixed them very poorly. They didn't try to smooth them together - to find some sort of middle ground such that they looked right. So you get these 3-D backgrounds, machinery, and vehicles with only okay looking 2-D animated characters. Perhaps if they had taken a little more time with the 2-D characters - really animated them well the disparate qualities wouldn't have been so off putting. And, in short, it's a pretty standard and so-so story theme. I enjoyed it, but it didn't even curl my socks, let alone knock them off. Some of the 3-D animation, especially the Tron-esqe motorbikes in motion, was very pretty and pretty groovy. Supposedly it's going to get a theatrical release and they are going to do both the English version and the Korean version (which is apparently a bit different in terms of dialog and imagery). I would urge you to see the Korean version, which I suspect will be much more enjoyable. I really found it weird that they showed the english version at the Seattle International Film Festival. I noticed also that I was not the only one who gave them some flack in questioning why they chose that version and why there is a specifically designed "english" version. Return to the Index Slim Susie At this point I was going to take a break, have some dinner, and be relaxed and groovy till my next movie, but Judith, from yesterday, convinced me to stay and hang out for this film. I had thought about seeing it, as it sounded like it might be interesting. It was okay. Some of it is very funny, some of it is rather gross, and much of it is pretty off-center, quirky, and weird. It's one of those films where everyone is kind of a nutbar or a moron, everybody does the wrong thing, and most of them really pay for it in the end. A man returns to his home town in Nowhere Sweden when he hears that his sweet little sister has disappeared. We come in at the end, after he's been grabbed by some guys with guns (Police? Thugs? Gangsters? We don't know.) and must tell the story of what has happened since he's arrived, so that they will understand that he is not to blame. And so we slowly learn that his sister Susie didn't stay so terribly sweet, that most of his friends are complete and utter morons, that the town is full of freaks, and that things are much darker than they seem on the surface. I think I would have liked this film a lot more if it hadn't been quite so disgusting. There was a rather high quotient of "ewwww" factor, nothing graphic but just a low-level continuous gross factor. So, eh! Not so great, but not so bad that I felt compelled to walk out. Return to the Index Steam - The Turkish Bath I was originally going to run to the Cinerama to catch Infernal Affairs 2 but decided that there wasn't enough time really and it was kind of a foolish idea, as I was coming right back to the Pacific Place to see Facing Window. So instead I stayed to see Turkish Bath in part because I had heard many good things about it, but had never seen it and in part because the director of the film was the same as the following Facing Window. It was really quite excellent. One of the things that I really appreciated about this film is that it touches upon gay/bi-sexual issues and identity without being about gay/bi-sexual issues. This was interesting because I had always been lead to believe that it was a "gay" movie and was really quite delighted to find that while there is an "unexpected" gay relationship in the film, it is not the central point of the film at all, but merely a supporting feature of the film. It kind of reminded me of Breakfast at Tiffany's in a way, where the lead is a gigiolo, but it's just his job. It's what he does. It's not the point or the crux of the film. I was surprised and a little dismayed at how many of the questions afterward (as the director was in attendance) focused on the whole gay relationship thing. One woman in particular asked why it had been incorporated in the first place, since clearly it doesn't really affect the story or the outcome of the film in any way. I was heartened and fell in love with the director when he responded "There is homosexuality in the world, so why not have it in films as well?" Bravo! The whole theater exploded into applause. He apologized a moment later to her, claiming, in his words, that his answer to her question was a little provocative, but I disagree - I think he was right on and put the woman in her place! I told him so afterward, and thanked him for the fantastic film, and managed to get his autograph. What a good film. Return to the Index The Story of the Weeping Camel This was really good. I'm glad that I caught it. It's part documentary and part storyline film, and it's pretty dang neat. The basic story is about a white camel that is born to a small Mongolian family, but when the mother refuses to accept the calf, they send out for a violinist to come and help them perform a ritual to reunite mother and son. It's charming and interesting and at times heartbreaking. When the little white camel is crying for his mother who just walks away from him I thought my heart was going to break. They make such a terribly tragic sound! Ah! The conclusion is quite astonishing and I was in awe at what looked and felt like magic, or the power of music, or something undefineable that I just can't place my finger or a description upon. It's rather like that old saying, "Music soothes the savage beast" ... perhaps there is some truth to that after all. Return to the Index Tamala 2010 - A Punk Cat in Outer Space This starts off GREAT! The animation is weird and flat, looking more like old Betty Boop/Mickey Mouse styled cartoons than anything you usually see in animation these days, especially animation coming from Japan. It is surreal and inexplicable and absolutely hilarious with the lead character, Tamala, kind of floating through her life with a soft, sweet, singsong voice and a proclivity for cursing just about anything that annoys her. Her solution to most problems is either force, ignoring it, doing whatever she wants to do, or sleeping it seems. They got the cat mannerisms down wonderfully, and it is just cute and charming and funny and weird. And then they do something really stupid, and for a good long chunk right in the middle Tamala isn't in the story any more and it just DIES. Tamala is the life of this movie, and once she's out of the picture, so to speak, it becomes tedious, annoying, and irritating. The worst part of all is this long, pedantic speech/story that one character tells in the middle, some sort of weird attempt to explain what the heck is going on. But you know what? It was more fun when we didn't know what the heck was going on! And what's worse, even knowing what was going on didn't make a difference. I didn't feel enlightened. It didn't suddenly all make sense. It didn't even have any impact whatsoever on the story, or the action. I simply thought to myself .... "So? So what if there's this ancient religion that has secretly come back into power through product sales and corporate infiltration?" If they had done something with that information, maybe it would have been interesting. But it's just kinda thrown out there, and we say, "Ahhh, okay?" and then nothing really happens. Tamala fortunately returns toward the end, though the show never really gets back the charm that it had during the first 30-45 minutes, which is too bad. Honestly, they just should have eliminated the whole middle and it would have been a whole lotta fun with just a little bit of an anti-climax. I have to say though, despite all that, I'm still really glad that I saw it. It just was so entertaining. It's kind of like that silly poem, "When she was good, she was very very good. But when she was bad, she was horrid." If it ever comes out on DVD, invite me over and I'll do some creative editing for you during the viewing. Trust me, you'll thank me in the end. ;) Return to the Index Tesseract It means well and it tries hard. I give it points for that. It loses points big time for being a little over the top obvious, as if we the viewers don't have enough smarts to put two and two together and come up with something other than four. The film follows the lives of four individuals and the people they know, overlapping moments in time and space and interactions, the foursome drawing ever closer until their destinies are inextricably linked. One is a englishman waiting for some drugs to carry. Two is an assassin, hired to get those drugs back from the men who stole them from her boss. She's already failed once, and it is a question of whether she will manage to finish the job or die first from the gunshot wound she received. The third is a psychologist who lost her son and now goes about filming and researching children in the poor districts of Thailand, asking them to recount their dreams. Fourth is a young boy who works at the hotel that they are all staying, who is sweet to their faces, but robs them behind their backs. There are moments in time, scenes that repeat themselves from different angles as characters meet, pass one another, shift from one event to another that we have just seen. But for some reason the director decided to either be "arty" in all of this or (and with good reason, I have to admit) decided that most audiences are too dumb to get it without some punctuation. So everytime we have one of these coincidences, the film slows down, something suddenly pulls into focus that wasn't in focus before, there's an abnormal intensity in the color of one object or area of the film. It's kinda neat, but honestly made me feel like the director was trying to say, "Look! Do you see it?? Do you see it? Get it? You've seen this before, right? Remember???" Enough already, I'm a smart girl. I figured it out on my own, thanks. It's also too long. It holds the tension and my interest for awhile, but then the thread gets cut, starts meandering all over the place, and I became quite bored and a bit annoyed. It's the kind of film that is all about the tension. Cut that tension and the film loses it's power. There was also one scene I found utterly extraneous and nonsensical, but whatever. I think, however, that the ending is the biggest disappointment. Just wasn't what I wanted, though I don't think I had a particular outcome in mind. Anywho, it didn't suck, it wasn't great. Don't know if I could necessarily recommend it to anyone or not. I think it depends on what kinds of films you like. Return to the Index Torremolinos 73 This film is fabulous! From Spain, it tells the tale of a salesman who finds out that his job of selling encyclopedia's door to door is being terminated because the market just isn't there any more. However, he is offered a new opportunity at his company - one that will pay him far more than selling mere encyclopedias ever would have. He is informed that they are creating a new line of educational sex videos to be part of an international effort to create an encyclopedia of sexual traditions around the world. The new job will be filming his wife and himself having sex at home. They need the money and his wife wants a baby, so they accept. But then a magical thing happens - the husband falls in love with making movies with his little Super8, and his wife sheds her inhibitions and becomes quite the actress. Before they realize it, Carmen has become a famous porn star in Scandanavia and Alberto finds inspiration from the great director, Ingmar Bergman, and creates his every own film that his company agrees to finance. This film was, at every turn, a sheer delight. There really never is a dull moment. Refreshing is the fact that neither Alberto nor Carmen are beautiful models. Alberto in fact is slightly portly and balding on top. Probably the most remarkable aspect is the one you barely notice. Not only does this film perfectly convey the feeling that it is 1973, but the film itself looks like an old film. It was digitially altered after the making to resemble a faded old movie print, like an old photo from a vacation taken years before. It's a very subtle touch, but it immeasureably adds to the ambiance. The director actually came over from Spain and there was a question and answer session after the film, which was great. I loved it so much I went over to say hello to him after it was over and had him sign my program book. I also invited him to drop by Scarecrow Video and give us some tips on what Spanish films we needed to add to our foreign film section. ;) There's one more showing of this film, I believe today. SEE IT! If you miss it, keep your eyes peeled ... hopefully it will get some sort of release here in the States. They're still looking for an interested distributor. Return to the Index Triple Agent This film could, and should have been many things. It could have been funny, it could have been witty, it could have been clever, it could have been gripping, it could have been intense, it could have been suspenseful, it could have been a farce, it could have been interesting. But no. You know what it is? BORING. Boooooooooooooooorrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! Boringboringboringboringboringboringboring! Well, unless you're well versed in world politics and events during 1936 ... then it might have been really interesting. Alas I have very little retention of history, and even less of political history. At first the film made me feel guilty, cause I felt like I should have know more about what they were talking about. Then the film made me feel left out, like the whole joke and the charm of it was an inside joke and I was an outside person. Finally in the end I just didn't give a shit any more. All they talked about was politics, politics, politics, which I neither understood nor gave a damn about nor felt particularly clued in or illuminated about. And that's all they do. Talk. Talk talk talk talk talk. I literally thought I was going to start screaming. I finally got a second where there was no talking, so I could escape without blocking the subtitles for anyone. How awful. And I wasn't the only one who thought so. I heard the door of the theater close at least 5 times, indicating people leaving I suspect, just as incredibly bored as I was. Return to the Index Turn Left Turn Right Or is that the other way around? This film was cute. It was, in fact, too cute. The story is essentially of two people who are fated for one another and have the uncanny ability to be in incredibly close proximity and never meet. They live right next to one another, but every time they leave their apartments, he turns right and she turns left. When one is crossing a bridge, the other is beneath it. When one is on one side of the subway car, the other is across the way, looking out the opposite window. It's charming at first but WAY too heavy handed and silly after awhile. The male lead however is GORGEOUS so I had a really good time looking at him and licking my lips. He also is a violinist, and I have to say that I'm a sucker for musicians. Nearly as good as an accent. ;) She is pretty damn charming and cute too, but I'm straight so there wasn't much drooling on her account. By the end it's positively ludicrous, but honestly I would rather see a silly goofy movie that is not very good than a boring depressing movie that is not very good. At least with the former I leave the theater with a smile on my lips. But I'm such a sucker for romance. Return to the Index Twilight Samurai This was a very interesting film about a low ranking Samurai, that is to say a samurai of no particular fame, wealth, or place. Rather than being a samurai film filled with lots of spectacular sword fights and the like, this movie tells the story of the end of the samurai era, of a man who would just as soon set aside his sword and his position and become a simple farmer. His wife dead from consumption, his mother senile, and with two daughters to raise, Seibei has a difficult situation on his hands. The story meanders like a graceful stream, trailing through the days of his life, the problems that he encounters, the tasks he must do, and framing this on either side like the shores of the river are his family and his devotion to them along with his duty to his clan. These banks form, shift, and change the river of his life and in the midst of all this drops a lovely fallen leaf in the form of an old childhood friend, the beautiful and kind Tomoe. It's a really beautiful and intriguing film and if you miss it at the film festival, which is likely cause both shows have sold out, fret not. We already have it for rent (Code 3, alas I believe) at Scarecrow Video. :) It is definitely worth seeing. Return to the Index Untold Scandal It's a retelling of the classic story of lust, perversity, and seduction, Dangerous Liasons but it takes place in China during the Cho-sun dynasty, which was marked by its highly repressive nature. This intensifies the tale of licentiousness somewhat, but not a whole lot. Other than that, it's pretty much the same story we all know. Unlike the version with John Malkovich, whom I never liked and was glad to see suffer and die, this version had me wanting a happy ending for the wickedly sinful seducer and his sweet and virtuous victim. He really is a man changed and transformed, and I was sorry to see the ending unchanged. Ironic really, that this is one of those books where no one messes with the story ... in a time when hardly anyone actually sticks to what the novel actually is about. Oh the irony. I was relieved to find that it was really quite wonderful. I had heard some questionable things about it and noticed that it hadn't sold many tickets, which is sometimes a big tip off that something is fishy in Denmark. But no, it was great and beautiful and entertaining and sexy. The costumes and settings are gorgeous, and it was much more erotic and tantalizing than most versions I've seen. Definitely a delight! Return to the Index

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